The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Substrate processing systems may be used to perform deposition and/or etching of film on a substrate. Substrate processing systems typically include a processing chamber with a substrate support such as a pedestal, an electrostatic chuck, a plate, etc. A substrate such as a semiconductor wafer may be arranged on the substrate support. In chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes, a gas mixture including one or more precursors may be introduced into the processing chamber to deposit a film on the substrate. In some substrate processing systems, radio frequency (RF) plasma may be used to activate chemical reactions.
Some chemical reactions that happen in the gas phase generate particles that may remain in the processing chamber after processing is completed. In addition to particles created during processing, particles may also reach the processing chamber due to dusted upstream parts, chamber leak events, contamination that occurs when replacing parts, and/or contamination that occurs during maintenance.
In some processes, purge gas is cycled on and off after the substrates are removed from the processing chamber to remove particles remaining in the processing chamber. Removing particles using purge gas cycling takes a relatively long time (˜24 hours) and may not reduce particles in the processing chamber to an acceptable level.